“So, for our institution the fact that this child is clean, dry, fed and gets medical help in time is the most important thing.”

Anna Gorchakova, director of a children’s hospice, said the severely ill children were being “treated as plants”.

Some teenagers weighed as little as 15kg (2st 5lb) and one 20-year-old was just 11.5kg.

The shocking state of the orphans was discovered by a journalist invited to a charity football match raising money for the special high-calorie nutrition for the orphans, which can be fed directly into their stomachs with a tube.

The special food can only be bought by the homes if a doctor examines a child and prescribes it.

Doctors blamed bureaucratic logjams and trouble raising funds, but officials claim that hospitals didn’t pay attention to the children, believing they had no future.

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